Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the their new VR headset Quest Pro at yesterday’s developer convention. Quest Pro costs $1,499 (£1,370), which is nearly four times the price of Meta’s existing headset, the Quest 2, which begins at $399, and five times if you consider the Quest 2’s launch price of $299. It has slimmer lenses, a curved battery around the back of the head strap, and self-tracking controls.
The headgear also lets users to see their actual surroundings around the screen’s edge. Unlike its predecessor, Quest Pro supports mixed reality, which means that digital material may be watched layered on the actual environment. Mixed reality, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is “the next major step for VR.”
Meta Quest Pro VR headset: Specs, price, and release date
According to Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen, the device’s high launch price made it better suitable to “high-end, enthusiast and potentially enterprise users” than than mass-market users. As Meta attempts to present mixed and virtual reality as a work tool as well as a source of entertainment, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently stated that the office platform Windows 365 will be accessible on it.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is basing its future on the establishment of a metaverse – a virtual environment in which individuals may conduct their daily lives as avatars while also exploring imaginative virtual worlds. Many IT companies are developing their own metaverses, but it will be several years before any emerge.
Horizons, Meta’s current virtual reality realm, has garnered mixed reviews so far. Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer, has also stated that “it will be a while before there are enough headsets out there.” According to Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight, the technology is being “fast tracked” into people’s hands. “There’s no demand, why rush,” he reasoned.
Xbox games for Quest Pro
During the event, there was a lot of talk about virtual reality apps, some of which have proven to be quite profitable for their producers, such as the VR version of the video game Resident Evil 4, which grossed $2 million in its first 24 hours. Iron Man and Among Us were among the new VR gaming games unveiled, as well as a future cooperation with Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming. However, there was no news on the long-awaited VR Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which some players were looking forward to.
YouTube VR, according to Andrew Bosworth, was one of the most popular apps in the Quest store. “The ultimate goal for the metaverse is to feel like any other social experience, great and small,” Vishal Shah, Meta’s vice president of the metaverse, stated. There is also Microsoft, collaborating with Meta. Considering how much Microsoft is raking in billions from the U.S. government for Hololenses which are going to be used as accessory to killing machines, MS had to have a very good reason to collaborate with their competitor, Meta. Hint: It has to be immense amount of money.
Do you wonder if you need a VR headset to use Meta’s Horizons? Click here to find out
